Rock-throwing may occur in a variety of contexts but is often associated with assaultive offenses, demonstrations and riots, and international conflicts.
At people Rock-throwing can be used by thieves, as was demonstrated by a 2015 case in India in which Ratan Marwadi, 45, was charged with throwing rocks at a random passer-by, Darshana Pawar, to disable and rob her. Pawar was killed by Ratan Marwadi, who had served time in jail for pelting rail commuters with stones with the intent of robbing them.
Vehicles Motor vehicles Rocks thrown at cars moving along highways at high speeds have been a problem in a number of countries. According to the
Austin, Texas police detective Jarrett Crippen, "When we're talking about highway speeds of 60, 70 mph, that rock is hitting you full-force.... If it's coming through your windshield, it can cause serious damage to the body, vehicle or even death." A Washington State trooper said of an arrest of criminal rock-throwers, "Any one of these rocks could have punctured a windshield, hit the driver in the face and killed them." Although the rocks are often thrown from overpasses or high points along the roadside, people riding in cars have also been killed by rocks thrown at random vehicles from passing cars. Notable instances of death and injury caused by rocks thrown at cars include the
death of Julie Catherine Laible, a professor at the
University of Alabama, the
Darmstadt American rock-throwing incident in which American teenagers killed a 20-year-old woman and critically injured her grandmother, then hit another car, killing the 41-year-old mother of 2 small children, the
death of Chris Currie, 20, on a road in New Zealand, In 2017, a single American highway,
Interstate 75, was the scene of the
2017 Interstate 75 rock-throwing murders.
Trains Throwing rocks at trains has long been a problem in countries including the United States and New Zealand, where passengers and train crews have been injured by large rocks thrown through windows.
Protests and riots demonstration in Paris. Rock-throwing has been in the past often adopted as a method by an unarmed population to protest a governing power's authority. Under English
common law, soldiers were not permitted to shoot at civilians engaged in that kind of protest unless their lives were in danger or they had obtained an express order from a civil magistrate. At one point, when town officials tried to arrest a British officer who was commanding the guard at Boston Neck, Captain Ponsonby Molesworth intervened to confront a stone-throwing crowd. Molesworth ordered the soldiers to bayonet anyone throwing stones who got too close. A Boston justice told him that, under common law, a bayonet thrust was not an act of self-defense against a stone, which was not a lethal weapon. Had a soldier killed anyone, Molesworth could have been tried for his life.' Political demonstrations in many countries have resulted with the arrest of violent protestors for throwing rocks and other objects at police. Many notorious and deadly riots have begun with or included rock-throwing as violence escalated, including the Toronto
Jubilee riots, the
Boston Massacre, and the
2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots in Ukraine.
International borders Egypt Stone throwing rioters have repeatedly clashed with Egyptian troops at the
Egypt–Gaza border. • In 2008, Gazans assaulted Egyptian border guards by throwing barrages of rocks over the low concrete border wall topped with barbed wire, tore down a section of the wall, and opened a road and moving goods and people across for several hours before the Egyptian Army, without using lethal force, managed to regain control of the border. • On 6 January 2010,
Hamas called on Gazans to protest the Egyptian border blockade. Gazan men responded by massing at the border and throwing rocks and
Molotov cocktails at the Egyptian security forces, who responded with gunfire.
Hungary In the 2015
Horgoš riot during the
European migrant crisis,
illegal immigrants at the
Hungarian southern border fence threw rocks and chunks of concrete at Hungarian border police.
Spain In recent years, increasing numbers of undocumented sub-Saharan Africans have passed through Morocco attempting to reach
European Union countries, and many attempt to enter Spanish soil at two Spanish enclaves,
Melilla and
Ceuta, on the African side of the
Mediterranean Sea. On several occasions, Moroccan and Spanish border authorities have defended lethal violence against African
illegal immigrants near the
Melilla border fence and
Ceuta border fence by asserting that groups of migrants attempting to storm the border in mass-entry events had thrown rocks to drive border guards away from the gates.
United States Rock-throwers on the Mexican side of the
Mexico–United States border frequently target
US Border Patrol agents with barrages of rocks to prevent them from apprehending individuals illegally crossing the border, particularly smugglers moving illegal drugs or illegal migrants across the border. Between 2010 and 2014, Border Patrol agents were assaulted with rocks 1,700 times and fired weapons at rock throwers 43 times, resulting in 10 deaths. Border Patrol agents are permitted to respond to rock-throwers with lethal weapons, but as of 2014, the policy is to attempt to avoid finding themselves in situations in which responding to rock-throwing with lethal force becomes necessary. ==Prevention==